Replies

Sorry, John! When I said I didn’t care that much for their product, I was talking about the MEDIA CENTER software.

I couldn’t live without PSP! Besides some MS junk, the only other I’ve used was…… uh, I can’t remember! I’m an old guy!

Sorry for the grammatical corn-fusion.

Al

One thing I forgot when I suggested TUCOWS was an “old” Winmag.Com “friend!” Karen Kenworthy is a writer from the former Winmag and she’s still in the “utility software” business on her own. I’ve used a number of her programs over the years and they’re FREE! She keeps things up to date and listens to her users. She recently created a file-by-file backup program called simply the REPLICATOR. I haven’t tried it yet but here’s a link to her web site.

Al

Cheyenne Backup is (or was?) a product of Computer Associates. I don’t know if it’s still even on the market, ’cause the version I have is called Cheyenne Backup for Windows 95, Version 2.0. Other than one upgrade patch over the years, I don’t think it’s around anymore, but you might look here for starters. The only reason I mentioned it is that it is one of many “file by file” programs around. If you’re looking to backup DAILY DATA files, rather than a whole hard drive, that’s what you need. You ought to do a search on the web or go to one or two of your fave shareware places, like TUCOWS or whatever and look for file-level backup programs.

As for doing it with DOS batch files, I think this forum is a little bit tight for me to “teach” you about batch command’s language. There are also places you can go to beef up on that topic. However, what it boils down to is using the COPY or XCOPY commands to explicitly copy files from one place to another. In effect, the aforementioned Cheyenne is doing just that. I have an “old” Pentium Pro computer upstairs that I’ve kept alive only as a backup repository. It’s got four big hard drives in it. Cheyenne is installed on it and its nightly scripts “pull” copies of files from my other two machines to the Pentium Pro. I absolutely don’t make ANY backups to CD, but I may be in the minority there. Check out Fred Langa’s newsletter for his opinion.

Drive Image does just that – it makes a single-file image of an entire hard drive (or partition) and writes that file to ANOTHER physical hard drive. For me, the only “hard” part of using Drive Image was learning how to make the “destination” hard drive be on another machine on my LAN. A few years ago I finally figured out how to do that WITHOUT PowerQuest’s help. Drive Image is a DOS program, even if you run it from within Windows. It reboots your machine into DOS, so I just use it directly from a DOS bootable floppy with network awareness.

I don’t know if your question about space was about Drive Image itself or the “images” it creates. Drive Image’s program files fit on one floppy. The program is capable of 40% or 50% compression but I don’t use it – big hard drives are pretty “cheap!” The destination file, uncompressed, will be approximately as large as the total data on the drive you’re backing up. You ought to go to PowerQuest and do a little reading there.

Good luck in your hunt!

Al

The JASC people (Paint Shop Pro) have a program called Media Center Plus that does what you want. It’s $29 bucks if you download and you CAN download a trial if you like. Take a look here Media Center Plus if you think you like their products.

I didn’t care that much for their product, but that’s ’cause I’m already set in my ways! I have a lot of pictures all over my web pages, so if you go to my web site and start by clicking on the photo of my grandson, you can take a look. I use a javascript that works pretty easily (view source). The slideshows are a completely different topic, so come back here if you want to know more about them.

Al

I don’t know which post to reply to, this is such a complex thread! May I go back to the beginning (early) of the thread for a minute? I also have a Linksys router and three machine LAN (XP Pro, Win98, WinME). Since you sounded like you did little or no configuring when you setup the router, I’d like to go back to that point. The “automatic”you used tells me that your three machines Networking properties are setup for DHCP, BUT you did set up the router with your ISP’s info didn’t you. Don’t know whether you have a fixed IP or DHCP there also. Sounds like DHCP all around if you think it was automatic.

The only reason I jumped in here is that every once in awhile, my Linksys router gets a little “flaky” and it will seem like I’ve lost my email or browsing capability. I was going crazy with the problem, between calling Verizon (DSL), my ISP, rebooting computers, powering off the DSL modem for a minute or two, etc. etc. This went on for ages every time I thought I had “lost” my connection. One day, sitting at my browser surfing and the connection seemed to go out, I put in the URL of my Linksys router on the browser just to check something. When I finished, lo and behold, my internet connection was working again.

Ever since that time, when I think I’ve lost my connection, I “look at the router’s settings,” even though I don’t change anything, click continue and bang, my surfing is resumed in an OK mode. I don’t know what the anomoly with the router is, since it’s firmware is up to date and the problem only happens once in awhile.

Just thought I’d throw that in so you might tweak the router and see if anything “good” happens!

Al

I STILL use an old copy of Cheyenne Backup that must be at least six or seven years old to do nightly data file backup to another computer on my small home LAN. Works flawlessly. Of course you could just write yourself a small “DOS” batch file and schedule it with the Windows scheduler to run every nite.

As far as “full” backups are concerned, I wouldn’t be without PowerQuest’s Drive Image. Doesn’t take that long either. I back up all hard drives to another machine on my LAN once a week.

Al

Like WebHawk, I have all the “don’t hide, show me, etc.” settings selected. I’m selfish – I want to be in control! I also am running Win XP Pro. The .SCF file for Explorer is in the Windows folder but when you browse there with Explorer, it DOESN’T show the file extension. It says under File Type that it’s a “Windows Command File,” (even if you SEARCH like I did). The only way I saw the file extension is because I dragged a shortcut of it to my desktop so I could check its parm properties and the SHORTCUT showed that it’s an .SCF file. Even if you look at properties of the original, it doesn’t show the extension.

When I originally commented on this thread, I wasn’t so much thinking about the hiding of…. although that too is interesting. I just thought it’s interesting how many file extensions (types, suffixes) are EXECUTABLE that old timers like me may never have heard of or used before, like .SCF or .MSI and whatever. As soon as I get time, I’m gonna go search on the web for someplace that lists file extensions so I can get up to speed.

Interesting stuff, all…..

Al

Yeah, you’re right. I personally have a shortcut on my desktop for Explorer the way I mentioned but I also use the Win-E key periodically too. What I was commenting on was the file EXPLORER.SCF which I had never heard of and it opens to a different view as well. In addition to the link you pointed out, the Windows keys are probably still somewhere in Help of Windows itself. It’s just interesting that there are so many different ways to view one program.

Al

That’s very interesting. I’ve only been using XP for a short time and before that I had little experience with NT or 2000, so I’m seeing a lot I’ve had no experience with. The file you mentioned has a file suffix of .SCF and I’ve never seen that one. Somewhere along the line, a whole lot of new file types have popped onto the scene, like .MSI and this one you discovered. I wonder where a guy can go to get the lowdown on all these “new” executables?

Al

I’m WITH YOU 100% Dave, on the subject of software/hardware vendors who “mess” with or replace Windows system files! Microsoft HAS done their best to “protect’ the operating system AND user from such capricious “vandalism.”

Now, back to the subject of Remote Administrator. Evidently I haven’t gotten lucky with a Lounge reader who’s also a user. Oh well….. I’ve been using the product for a few days now and I like it a lot so far. It’s very FAST, easy to setup and configure and the price is right (for a small user). Not sure I would say that for the price of site licensing however. As soon as I get a chance to set it up on my son’s computer at his home I’ll be able to say more about how it works across the net. But here on my LAN it’s just fine.

Al

Yeah, as shown, you can get a lot out of the parmaters for Explorer. The one I use for my desktop shortcut to Explorer is:

%SystemRoot%explorer.exe /e,/root,,/select,c:

This opens Explorer focused on the C: drive

Al

No disrespect intended in my last post Dave! To be fair, I should be a tad more specific, I guess. Well, Remote Desktop is kinda like ICS was in Win98SE. ICS worked, but spending money on a Linksys router was much more efficient for ME. Remote Desktop works but man, is it SLOW! And certainly not the most intuitive thing to setup. I got so used to the third-party programs that I guess I’m spoiled. It’s worth it to me to spend a little dough and get the job done right. I’ve been using pcAnywhere for a long time, both on my LAN at home and back and forth to the computer at work. But I no longer work, so my only “internet” use is between me and my son at his home. pcAnywhere is a tad pricey and even though I “own” version 10, Symantec wants $100 bucks to “upgrade” to 10.5.1 which works under WinXP! So, I stumbled on this Remote Administrator (RADMIN) and was looking for input from someone who might have used it.

I don’t want to get into a diatribe about Mr. Bill, but I’m not too pleased with Win XP so far. It’s like all the previous versions – it’s better than the last one, but…..

Hope you didn’t take offense. AND, if you know of, or discover any tricks to make Remote Desktop work faster, maybe you could spread the word, huh?

Nice “talkin’ to ya”

Al

Uh Huh! Try it, you may like it!

Al

Just for fun, laughs, tears or whatever, you ought to read Woody’s Windows XP newsletter #2.05 on the subject of backup!

Al

Update. I just received an email finally from the author of Sound Association who said that it isn’t possible under WinNT/2000/XP to do what I’m asking. I’m hoping that he’s wrong and that someone will come up with the answer. Even my three year old Quicken 99 added sound events to the registry of XP that work. So did Hot Dog Pro editor, and so on…..

Well, I’ll keep watching…..

Al